Van de Putte looks to bilingual, bipartisan Senate

By Kolten Parker :
January 8, 2013
: Updated: January 8, 2013 9:47pm

Recently elected senators, including Donna Campbell (center) take the oath of office during the opening of the 83rd Texas Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013, in Austin.

Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News

Senator Leticia Van de Putte is helped to the podium to be sworn in as as president pro tempore of the Texas Senate during the opening of the 83rd Texas Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013, in Austin.

Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News

Senator Leticia Van de Putte speaks after being sworn in as Senate Pro Tem during the opening of the 83rd Legislative Session in Austin on January 8, 2013.

Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News

Senator Leticia Van de Putte speaks after being sworn in as president pro tempore of the Texas Senate during the opening of the 83rd Texas Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013, in Austin.

Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick speaks, backed by Houston pastors, to the Texas Faith and Family Day rally in the State Capitol on February 24, 2015

Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News

Senator Leticia Van de Putte, being pushed in a wheelchair by newly elected Senator Donna Campbell, greets Attorney General Greg Abbott just before the opening of the 83rd Texas Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013, in Austin.

Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News

Senator leticia Van de Putte is brought down the center aisle of the Senate to be sworn in as president pro tempore of the Texas Senate during the opening of the 83rd Texas Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013, in Austin.

The designation means Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, will assume the role of governor if Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst are out of the state. She'll be the first Democrat to serve in this capacity since the late Mario Gallegos of Houston in 2007 and the first woman since Florence Shapiro of Plano in 2005.

Van de Putte, who is recovering from foot surgery after a fall Dec. 8, was pushed in a wheelchair through the Senate Chamber by newly elected Republican senator and physician Donna Campbell.

At the podium, Van de Putte joked she had “fallen victim to government failure” in D.C.

“It was not a fiscal cliff, but a pot hole,” she said.

The 58-year-old pharmacist, raised in San Antonio, first was elected to the Texas House in 1990 and became a state senator in 1999. She served as chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2003 until last year.

Flanked by her family, she held her husband's hand as she spoke about the growing diversity in Texas at the opening of the 83rd Legislative Session.

“This session is a time to look ahead, it is a time of great change in our state,” she said.

“Our state grew faster than any other state and the biggest part of that growth was in the Latino population. That transformation brings challenges and opportunities.”

Van de Putte said she'll strive to replenish the budget to public education, which she called the “fuel of (Texas') economic engine.”

Diminishing human trafficking through the southern border and increasing aid and support for veterans are important, too, she said.

The senator already has filed three bills that would provide aid to victims of human trafficking and allow for victims to pursue civil damages against traffickers and advertisers of solicitation.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, the first Hispanic woman to serve as pro tem, congratulated Van de Putte by sharing prideful stories of the discrimination Van de Putte faced in her youth.

“Leticia was sensitized to inequality at a young age and now she fights for social justice every day,” Zaffirini said.

Sens. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, praised Van de Putte's ability to “reach across the aisle” for bipartisan agreements and called her the “mother of the Senate.”

“It is time to move forward in Texas and embrace the changing demographics,” Van de Putte said.